Today’s consumers don’t just want customization, they expect it. And we’re seeing this play out in the travel insurance industry. As such, travel insurance providers are evolving – like they always have – to offer relevant products that can be customized for a travel supplier’s specific customer demographics, which has become especially important since the start of the pandemic.
“With travelers’ growing appetite for customization, travel insurance providers are being challenged to provide advisory services to travel suppliers that rely on sophisticated data and their deep expertise of the markets and industries served,” said Beth Godlin, president of the Aon Affinity Travel Practice.
Here’s how the customization equation works:
- From “one size fits all” to customization: When independent travel insurance providers work closely with travel suppliers, they gain deeper insights into not only customer demographics, but also the nuances associated with the specific type of travel and destination. For example, a high-end luxury safari would have very different benefit needs than an overnight trip to a domestic city. A travel insurance provider working with the safari tour operator would look at several elements to recommend coverage – from historical customer demographics to ease of access to medical care along the itinerary. This kind of knowledge gives providers the ability to take a product like travel protection and turn it into an offering that’s tailored to both the travel supplier’s customer demographic and the travel experience itself, instead of trying to force a round block into a square hole like products that used to be “one size fits all”. Providers are then offering these customized travel protection plans to the travel supplier’s customers at the point of booking, adding to the ease of the travel protection equation. Consumers are used to getting custom content when they want it – so much so that they’re expecting it in every aspect of their lives, including their travel protection.
The Aon Travel Takeaway? “Travel insurance providers – especially those who have the flexibility to leverage a panel of different insurance companies – are constantly adapting to better meet the changing needs of their clients based on the emerging risks in our everchanging world,” said Godlin. “We’ll continue to see this unfold as we transition from the pandemic to the endemic and beyond.”